Whether it's your first time traveling to Sin City or if you've been dozens of times, you'll obviously need to find accommodations for your upcoming trip. For many people, the cost of the hotel takes up a significant amount of their travel budget. You'd probably like to save as much as possible for gambling, shopping, dining, or shows, but of course, you'll want to stay in a decent hotel, too. The good news is that there are many ways you can save money on Las Vegas hotels. These are 11 tips that can help get you started in the right direction.
1. Choose Your Dates Carefully
One of the biggest things you can do to save money on your Las Vegas hotel is by choosing your dates carefully. Vegas is a popular destination all year long, but there are times when travel is at its peak. If you choose the right non-peak dates, you can typically save a significant amount of money. Plus, many people prefer to visit Las Vegas when it's not quite as busy, since this can help you avoid crowds, long lines, and bad traffic during your stay.
The month of December is a great example. The National Finals Rodeo is hosted annually in Las Vegas in early to mid-December. Hotel prices are generally on the higher end during this time of year. Once NFR is over and it starts getting closer to Christmas, though, rates are some of the cheapest that you'll see all year. This is the case until a couple of days before New Year's Eve, which is perhaps the most expensive time of the year to visit Sin City. Long holiday weekends and certain popular sporting events can really impact pricing, too.
The days of the week that you stay will heavily impact the cost of your hotel, too. Sunday through Thursday nights are generally much cheaper than Friday or Saturday nights.
If you have some flexibility in your schedule, play around with different dates when you're looking at different hotel sites. This can help you get an idea of when pricing is most affordable.
2. Join the Casino's Player's Club
Every casino hotel in Las Vegas has a casino player's club or loyalty program. These programs are designed with gamblers in mind, but even if you aren't going to be gambling a lot on your trip, it's worth signing up. Most casinos will allow you to sign up for an account online, and this will sometimes help you save a few bucks on your hotel. Plus, by signing up ahead of time, you can save time when you arrive. Just stop by the player's club desk in the casino to pick up your physical card.
3. Sign Up for Email Lists
Sign up for the email lists for the hotels that you're interested in possibly staying at. They may send you offers in your email for signing up. Casinos often send out emails when they're having sales or promotional events on hotel rooms, so this is a good way to find out about the best deals.
4. Stay Off-Strip
For many people, the idea of staying off the famous Las Vegas Strip just isn't an option. If it's your first time visiting Las Vegas and you want to have a typical tourist experience, I would recommend that you stay on the Strip. If you've been multiple times or are visiting for other reasons (like if you're more interested in hiking in Red Rock Canyon or spending time in the more residential areas of the city), or if you just plan to send most of your time gambling inside the resort, though, it's worth considering staying off the Strip. There are many nice off-Strip casino hotels that are more affordable than the ones on the Strip.
5. Check Out Budget-Friendly Strip Hotels
Put simply, some of the hotels on the Las Vegas Strip are much more high-end and expensive than others. The Cosmopolitan, Aria, and Wynn are a few examples of this. On the other hand, there are some properties that are well-known for being more affordable, such as Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, Flamingo, Linq, or Harrah's.
In my experience, the budget-friendly hotels are just fine. I've never stayed at Circus Circus, but it gets a lot of hate from many Vegas enthusiasts. I personally tend to stay at budget-friendly properties that are operated by Caesars Entertainment: Flamingo, Linq, Harrah's, or Horseshoe (which was formerly known as Bally's). Each of these hotels have rooms that have been renovated fairly recently, and they have all of the amenities that I'm interested in. I've never had an issue with the cleanliness of my rooms, I've always felt safe, and staff have always been friendly.
Of course, it really depends on what you're used to, how luxurious of a vacation you want to have, and what your budget is. It's a good idea to compare rates for different Las Vegas Strip hotels to get an idea of which ones have the more affordable prices. You should also check out pictures and read reviews of the property so you know what you're getting into.
6. Consider Booking Through Priceline
For the most part, I prefer to book Las Vegas hotels directly with the hotel that I'm staying at. It's often more affordable, and it's usually easier to make changes to your reservation, if necessary. If something goes wrong when you book through another site, it can be harder to straighten things out, since you'll have to work with a middleman instead of working directly with the hotel.
With all of that said, though, hotel booking sites can sometimes be useful when you're on a budget. Priceline has always been my go-to when it comes to hotel booking sites, although Hotwire is another option.
Priceline offers "Express Deals" on hotels (as well as flights and maybe other things) that can sometimes save you some serious coin. Basically, with Express Deals, you won't know which hotel you're staying at until after you book. Priceline does tell you basic things like the general location, review score, etc., so you aren't going in totally blind.
The downside of this is that, well, you won't know where you're staying until you've already paid. (And it's non-refundable). The upside is that you can often get a significantly cheaper rate. Priceline advertises that you can save 60% on your hotel costs with this option. Plus, you can sometimes figure out which hotel you're going to get by comparing the information that Priceline gives you about the "Express Deal" hotel vs. their hotel listings.
They also offer a "Pricebreaker" option. With this option, you're shown a list of three hotels and a rate. If you book you're guaranteed to get one of the three hotels that are shown, but you won't know which one until, again, you have already booked and paid.
As you can imagine, this option isn't for everyone. If you have your heart set on a certain hotel or want to really be able to research the property before booking, you'll probably want to skip this option. If you're a little more flexible and just want to save as much as possible, though, this can be a great way to do it.
7. Book in Advance
Sometimes, you just have to book a hotel at the last minute. Hey, if you've got a chance to take a last-minute trip to Las Vegas, there's certainly nothing wrong with that! If you do know well in advance when your trip will be, though, it pays to book your hotel in advance. In many cases, prices just get higher as the travel dates get closer.
If you book directly through the hotel, you typically have the option to cancel or change your reservation later, if you need to. (Make sure you check the hotel's policies before booking so you're clear on this.) This means that if you book in advance, you can keep an eye on hotel pricing for your travel dates in the months and weeks leading up to your trip. If you see lower rates than what you booked, you can cancel and re-book at the lower rate, or you can call and ask an agent to potentially lower your rates to the current ones. Your luck with the latter really depends on the hotel's policies, and sometimes, the particular agent you speak to.
On the other hand, if you see that prices are just going up, you'll likely feel good in knowing that you booked at a good time and a good rate!
8. Check Out Package Deals
In general, I'm not a big fan of package deals that involve booking your flight and hotel together (and even your rental car, in some cases). It's usually harder to make changes if you need to, and I've sometimes found it's more expensive to book this way. However, it's worth checking out your options. I don't know about you, but I'm willing to bend on this type of thing if it's going to save me a ton of money. It's not a bad idea to at least compare a few travel packages vs. the cost of booking things separately, just to see.
9. Switch Hotels During Your Trip
If you're like many (most?) Las Vegas travelers, you're likely planning to spend your entire trip at one hotel. That may be true whether you're staying for a couple of nights or a whole week. Some prefer this; it gives you time to really enjoy the resort you've chosen, and you don't have to move your bags from place to place, either.
However, you can sometimes save money by switching hotels during your trip. For example, if you're interested in staying at one of the higher-end properties but are struggling with the price, this is an option. You can stay at a higher-end hotel like Wynn or Cosmo on the cheaper nights of your trip (like during the week), then switch to a more budget-friendly hotel for the more expensive nights of your trip (like Friday and Saturday).
In addition to saving you money, this has other benefits, too. In the above example, you could stay at Cosmo for a few nights, then move to Excalibur or Luxor. This allows you to enjoy different areas of the Strip, so you'll get a little more variety. Plus, you could stand to easily save hundreds of dollars by making this switch.
Just be mindful of check-out and check-in times; you may find yourself roomless for a few hours if you take this route. Check-out time at Wynn is 12pm, and check-in time at Excalibur is 3pm. That gives you three hours without a room. This shouldn't be too much of a problem, though. You can ask for late check-out at Wynn, but it's $100, which to me, isn't worth it. However, the bell desk at most hotels will hold your bags for you for a while, so you can go out for lunch, shop a little, and gamble a little (as they're hoping you'll do!) during the in-between times. Additionally, depending on how busy the hotel is (as well as hotel policies and even sometimes the particular check-in agent that you work with), you can sometimes check into your room a little early, with or without a fee.
10. Play myVEGAS
If you've never played myVEGAS, you're in for a treat. This addictive casino game allows you to earn real rewards that you can use in Las Vegas. This game used to have amazing rewards years ago, but they're not as great now. Still, you can book free rooms through the app, so it's definitely worth considering if you have some spare time to play the game. Be aware that you're generally still required to pay resort fees for these "free" rooms, but you can still save a lot of money.
11. Avoid Paying Extra for a View
Many Las Vegas Strip hotels will allow you to book a room with a nice view (such as of the Bellagio fountains, or just the Strip in general) for an added cost. For some, it's hard to imagine staying in a Las Vegas hotel without a nice view. It's up to you whether the premium price is worth it (the difference varies from hotel to hotel and day to day), but skipping the view is one way to shave down your hotel budget. Plus, there are plenty of other ways to enjoy great views while you're in Sin City.
As you can see, there are actually a number of different ways that you can save money on a hotel for your Las Vegas vacation. If you're willing to put in a little time and effort, and if you're at least a little bit flexible, you may be surprised by how much you can save.
No comments:
Post a Comment